


The Von Riegan Gang

by XavierTeatime



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:08:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22078993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XavierTeatime/pseuds/XavierTeatime
Summary: The Battle of Garreg Mach has ended a terrible failure. With their professor missing, presumed dead, the Golden Deer flee into the night, the Imperial army hot on their tail. While Claude and Lorenz debate what they should do in this dangerous new world, it is Lysithea, acutely aware of her own waning mortality, who will decide how far she is willing to go to save her friends.An alternate, no-Byleth retelling of the events of the timeskip and Verdant Wind. Where is this story going? I have no idea. Let's find out together!
Comments: 7
Kudos: 28





	1. Swept Away

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, and welcome to my Three Houses fanfiction.
> 
> I'm just gonna...wing it.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Well, THAT went poorly.

Lysithea craned her neck around to get what might very well be one last look at the fading figure of Garreg Mach Monastery. What had been home for a year was now the site of a devastating battle. Smoke filled the horizon all around them, the sounds of screams and the clanging of metal filling the air.

The young girl blinked a few tears from her eyes and turned back around. Directly ahead of her was the purple geometric anomaly known as Lorenz’s hair. She was clinging to the older boy’s waist as he galloped away from the battlefield as fast as he could.

“I can’t believe it,” he said out loud, as much to himself as to anyone else. “Edelgard, attacking Garreg Mach...the...the incivility of it!”

“Incivil? That’s what bothers you about this?” came the voice of Claude, galloping alongside them on a separate horse. “Yes, mm, quite, Edelgard murdering all those knights and students was positively boorish. Quite rude, in fact, mm.” 

“Claude, I really do not need your running commentary right now,” Lorenz snapped back. “Can it at least wait until we can no longer hear the Imperial army directly behind us?”

“Sure, except for one small question: where the hell are we even going?” Claude asked. “It looks like we’re going due north. Unless I failed geography, which I admit I won’t rule out, that’d put us straight into Faerghus territory. Shouldn’t we be trying to cut east, back to the Alliance?”

“I saw the route the army was taking before the attack,” Lysithea chimed in. She was not able to speak very loudly, due to the intense mental focus being placed on not losing her lunch. Horseback riding was not one of her stronger areas. Thankfully, while Claude and Lorenz each could not bear to let the other speak without letting out a snappy comeback, they both listened respectfully to Lysithea. “Their reserve line will be entirely blocking any route back to the Alliance. I think north is all we’ve got until things calm down.”

“...Right then. North it is,” Claude said with a nod.

“I’m afraid I simply must object!” Lorenz cried. “My family is right along the border. If the Imperial army is going to invade, then they...I have to be there!”

Lysithea could feel Lorenz tighten his grip on the reins of his horse, planning to change directions. With agility that made it seem effortlessly, Claude reached out a hand and grabbed Lorenz’s reins while still holding onto his own, bringing both horses to a stop.

“Listen, Lorenz! Do you hear that behind us? Do you know what that sound is? That is the sound of everything changing forever. Whatever Edelgard is doing, whatever she has planned, it can’t be solved by running back home to mommy and daddy. She was willing to kill us. All of us! Her classmates! And...even Teach…”

Everything went quiet. Even the distant sounds of the battle seemed to be taking a respectful moment of silence.

“We don’t know that he is dead,” Lorenz said quietly.

Lysithea took a few deep breaths. Something deep in her gut was telling her this was one of those moments that would matter. What she said next would change the fates of a lot of people very dramatically. And part of her wanted to say: Professor Byleth is okay. He’ll be back for us. All we have to do is return to our homes, hunker down, and wait. And in five years, we’ll return to Garreg Mach for a reunion like we had planned, and he’ll...he’ll save us--

But what she said was, “we have to assume he’s dead. We can’t put ourselves in danger waiting for him. It’s not what he would have wanted.”

“And the others?” Lorenz snapped. “Are we to assume all of our friends and classmates are dead, too? All of our friends? Are we just giving up on them?”

Claude put his head in his hands and took a few deep breaths. “No...no, we’re not just...okay, let’s calm down and think. We can figure this out. We just have to find a safe place to lay low for a bit, wait for things to calm down enough that we can start to comb out and find our people. Okay? I just...I don’t know where--”

A flash struck Lysithea. A memory of a fight they had once been in, not too far from here. She recalled bandits crawling out of the floor, popping out of the walls - at the time it had been terrifying, but in hindsight she recalled being impressed with the tactical defensibility of the place.

“Conand Tower,” she said. “Remember? When we had to go stop Sylvain’s brother and recover that relic he stole?”

“Hey, you’re right,” Claude said, snapping. “That’s not too far from here! Good enough for a bunch of bloodthirsty thieves, good enough for us, eh?”

“How degrading,” sighed Lorenz.

“Great, at least you got a good title for your autobiography out of this,” Claude said, kicking his horse back into a trot. With an uncouth grumble, Lorenz spurred their horse to follow.

Lysithea looked between Lorenz and Claude. It seemed oddly fitting that, if she were to be stuck with any two of her classmates, it would be those two, who so perfectly embodied diametrically opposed viewpoints of the world.

At first Lorenz had driven Lysithea mad with his incessant prattling on about the duties of the nobility and the strict codes that any blessed with good status must abide by. He had been a truly infuriating cocktail of insufferably smug and painfully naive. Yet, through his persistent refusal to take a hint and leave her alone, he had slowly wormed his way into her heart. Something about his intense idealism coupled with a total lack of self awareness - how did he manage to pour so much effort into perfectly maintaining such an utterly horrendous haircut? - had become oddly endearing to her.

Claude, on the other hand, was instantly easy for just about anyone to like, albeit incredibly hard to pin down on anything resembling a principle or a value. He was always equipped with a quick jab or a biting retort, but while Lorenz let his code of honor define him, Claude was similarly defined by a complete lack of code. That wasn’t to say he was a bad person; just that he was entirely uninterested in what others would take into consideration when judging if someone was good or bad.

She hoped her other classmates were okay.

The one she found herself worrying about the most was Ignatz. Not because she was particularly fond of him - really, he could be a bit tiring - but because he seemed least suited to survive a battle like the one they had just narrowly escaped from. Sure, he was decent with a bow and with magic, but his tiny frame and sheepish demeanor made it impossible to conjure his image alongside descriptors like “courageous” or “badass.”

Leonie, on the other hand, was badass personified. Like Ignatz, she was most at home with a bow, but unlike Ignatz, she could take a punch without crumpling like wet tissue paper. Lysithea had little worry that she was out here somewhere, bashing two Imperial soldier’s heads together and riding off before anyone knew what had happened.

Marianne was...a bit of an enigma. Lysithea knew that, aside from herself of course, Marianne had the highest magical aptitude of anyone in the Golden Deer house, perhaps of anyone at Garreg Mach. Yet, despite such raw potential, she had almost never seen fit to use it, always hanging back during missions and hoping to focus on healing allies rather than attacking enemies.

Raphael might very well still be in the mess hall, unaware that a war had broken out. In any event, he’d probably be fine.

Flayn was an interesting character. She had joined the class a few months after the start of the year, and her past seemed shrouded in mystery. Still, even in the best of times, her older brother Seteth seemed ready to massacre the entire population of Fodlan if it would keep her safe, so she had no doubt they’d be able to survive a little thing like the Imperial army.

But perhaps those she was most curious about were her classmates from the Empire, who had transferred out of the Black Eagles house and into the Golden Deer. The Empire was now their enemy, wasn’t it? So what would happen to her friends from there?

Ferdinand had been the first to switch classes. Apparently the young man had some sort of complex about beating Edelgard, and had, about halfway through the school year, determined that he could not surpass her by studying from the same instructor. Thus, he had approached Professor Byleth, believing the former mercenary would have a trick or two to help him get the upper hand. But would Ferdinand now be serving Edelgard, his rightful Empress? He had been nothing but polite to her during the half of the year that they studied together. Sure, he was a bit of a tit at times - he and Lorenz had once gotten stuck outside the main hall, each insisting the other go first for twelve straight minutes before Manuela came along and dragged them both inside by their ears. But the thought of having to fight him brought a cold feeling to the pit of Lysithea’s stomach.

Then there was Bernadetta. Lysithea...had failed to get particularly close to her even after she had switched houses. The strange girl spent every moment outside the classroom locked up in her room. The only reason she had switched in the first place was because Byleth seemed to have some strange knack for getting her to open up. Byleth and, surprisingly enough, Raphael.

And what of the Blue Lions? Last she had seen Dimitri, he had been...not well. The revelation of Edelgard’s betrayal seemed to have struck him harder than anyone, for reasons well beyond her knowledge. Their class, led by the esteemed mage Hanneman, consisted of the students from Faerghus, as well as Petra, princess of the small island Brigid, who had transferred into it a few months back. Would Hanneman have gotten his students out safely? Would they be heading north, into Faerghus, just as she, Lorenz, and Claude were now?

It suddenly occurred to her that she was forgetting someone. Her final classmate, Hilda--

"Hilda?” she called out.

“Hey!” Hilda responded, as Claude and Lorenz pulled their horses to a halt alongside her. She was standing on the side of the dusty forest road, doubled over with her hands on her knees as she struggled for breath. Thankfully, her bright pink hair made her immediately recognizable.

“Thank the Goddess!” Lorenz said. “I’m glad to see you’re okay.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” Claude said. “Hop on, I’ve got plenty of room. We were going to head to Conand Tower and--”

“Hold on!” Hilda snapped, holding up a finger. She resumed doubling over and breathing heavily. “Just have to...catch...my breath…”

“Alright, take your time.”

“Yeah...sorry...just...had to run for a bit...cardio...not my strong suit...it hurts…wheeze...wheeze...wheeze…”

“I mean, okay, maybe don’t take THAT much time, there is still an evil army on our tail.”

“It’s...Flayn!” Hilda finally gulped out. “I was with her, Seteth put us on his wyvern and told us to get to safety while he held off the Empire soldiers, he said he’d find us later, only once we were in the air we realized that neither Flayn or I knew how to fly a wyvern so we slightly crashed.”

The other three exchanged glances.

“Slightly crashed?”

“Well. Crashed.”

“Uh.”

“Where is Flayn now?” Lysithea snapped, hoping to hurry Hilda along to the point.

“She was wounded and there were wolves so I ran to get help!” Hilda responded, her voicing reaching a panicked pitch. “And when I say wolves I don’t mean cute li’l puppy wolves, I mean those big creepy demon wolves!”

“Thank you for that important clarification,” Claude said, rolling his eyes.

But while Claude was quipping, Lorenz had drawn his bow and kicked his heels into their horse’s flank. “Onwards! A damsel is in distress and I, Lorenz Hellman Gloucester, must answer the call!”

“Lorenz! Wait! I’m still back here--!” Lysithea squealed, clutching harder to his waist as the forest began to spin around them at a dizzying pace.

“Don’t get too far ahead, you idiot!” came Claude’s voice from behind them. “You don’t even know where you’re going..!”

A bone-chilling howl rang out through the forest around them. This only seemed to steel Lorenz’s determination. “Demonic wolves. That’s the right direction.”

Lysithea wanted to say she actually admired Lorenz’s chivalry in this sort of situation, but at the current speed all she could really manage was, “gurp.”

The howling died down and gave way to the sound of foliage crumpling off to the side, as something heavy and fast crushed it under its paws. She whipped her head back and forth, hearing the same thing on both sides. Closing her eyes, she felt the warm power of light magic flowing through her, empowered by her crests. The sensation burned her slightly, but it was one she had long since grown used to, a side-effect of the second crest she had been unwillingly gifted with.

One of the wolves cut sideways at a ninety-degree angle, mouth gaping wide and dripping with saliva, claws ready to cut through Lysithea, Lorenz, and their poor unnamed horse like so much cheesecloth.

Instead it got a mouth full of abraxis. It wasn’t enough to kill it, but it clearly stunned the beast, causing it to careen wildly off the path behind them as Lorenz’s horse continued to gallop ahead.

While the horse let instinct take care of navigating around the trees, Lorenz let go of the reins and grabbed his bow, nocked an arrow back, and sent it flying in the opposite direction as Lysithea’s spell. An almost sad squeal rang back, letting them know he had hit his target. Lorenz did a small fistpump of victory, then blushed when he saw Lysithea staring at him judgmentally.

“Alright, two down,” he said, clearing his throat. “We just need to--”

Lysithea wasn’t entirely sure what happened next, if the horse simply tripped over some vegetation, or if one of the giant wolves had managed to swipe its legs out from underneath it. But the next thing she knew she was flying through the air, slamming into the ground, and rolling several feet before coming to a halt.

She stood up in a panic, quickly assessing that, mercifully, she did not seem to have any broken bones. Beside her, Lorenz was groggily rising to his feet, though his knee buckled slightly when he tried to put all his weight on it.

In an instant another wolf was before them, jaw snapping in eager anticipation of getting to eat two entire teenagers. Lysithea searched her mind for another spell she could cast, but the wolf was leaping through the air--

“Hyaaah!” came a battle screech that was, despite all conventional wisdom, incredibly girly. A flash of pink flew through the air and landed astride the wolf, and an axe - golden and glowing with a powerful radiance - sliced through the wolf’s neck, causing it to skid lifelessly to a halt.

“Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Who’s the best? I’m the best! Go Hilda, go Hilda, it’s your birthday, something something--”

“LET’S ALL KILL THE REST OF THE WOLVES FIRST PLEASE AND THANK YOU,” called out Claude, as he rode his horse back around in a half-circle, drawing an axe of his own. The wolf with a singed mouth, having been blasted by Lysithea’s magic, was met in a sort of feral joust, and Claude managed to pull away at just the right moment to slide through the beast’s soft underbelly.

“Alright,” said Lorenz, “so that just leaves the one I shot with an arrow--”

A burst of sound and motion, and the last wounded beast was on top of them, pinning Lorenz to the ground, slobber dripping down onto his face. “Augh!” he screamed. “No thank you! I don’t like this! Please no!”

And then a whimper, and the wolf went limp, crushing his lower body. Claude hefted his bloody axe, looking down at his classmate.

“No thank you and please no? Were your last words seriously just about to include thank you and please to the beast that was killing you?”

Lorenz begrudgingly took Claude’s outstretched hand to help him get back to his feet as Hilda grunted and shoved the wolf corpse to the side, freeing him.

“Yes, well,” he said, awkwardly brushing himself off. It was a futile endeavour, mostly resulting in wolf giblets just getting smeared around. “I appreciate the assistance.”

“Flayn!” gasped Lysithea. She pushed her way past the others, rushing towards the fallen form she could now see in the distance.

She knelt before the small body. She had a strange sense of fondness for Flayn. Though nobody knew her exact age, she had seemed young and naive, attributes that many at Garreg Mach attributed to Lysithea herself. Suddenly she wished she had put more time and effort into getting to know her.

“Oh, Goddess, no...is she…?” came Hilda’s voice as the others caught up behind her.

A large scar was running its way down Flayn’s face, from forehead to chin. Her eyes were closed. She was breathing, but barely.

“No...no, no,” Claude muttered, before screaming a curse at the top of his lungs. Lysithea would have been surprised by this outburst if she hadn’t already been in shock at the site of Flayn’s--

“No,” she whispered to nobody in particular. “No.” She held Flayn close to her chest. “I can...I can do this…”

“Lysithea?” came Lorenz’s concerned voice. “Lysithea, we can’t stay for long. There may be more wolves, not to mention the Imperial--”

Her crests burned. Ever since the second had been imbued in her, she could feel it, feel it like a hot iron brand against her chest when she needed to use it. Many times over the years she had thought that she would do anything to get rid of it, to get rid of both of them, to just be normal and mundane and unmiraculous--

But perhaps now a miracle was what they needed.

The magic thrummed around her, through her, burst through her veins and out of her pores and into the air until all of them could feel it, sizzling and bubbling around them, rearranging the building blocks of reality as needed until--

Flayn took a deep gasp for air, and Lysithea went dark.


	2. Steep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Golden Deer stumble upon a Golden Opportunity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the kind reception! Comments and feedback are always appreciated.

And like that, Flayn was gone.

“I can’t believe it,” Claude said slowly. “I never thought this would actually happen.”

“Indeed,” Lorenz somberly agreed. “It was a twist I certainly did not anticipate, and she shall be missed.”

Flayn slapped her hand of cards down onto the floor. “I do not understand the rules of this game, and I am pretty sure you are just making them up as you go along!”

Claude gave her a sly grin while Lorenz attempted to hide a chuckle. After some light-hearted bickering, the three agreed to another game.

Leaning up against a nearby stone wall, Lysithea was flipping through a fashion magazine. At first she had been furious with Hilda to learn that, in the final moments before the attack, she had stuffed 14 magazines into her emergency supply bag instead of conserving the face for rations or bandages, but after a week holed up in Conand Tower, she was grateful for the diversion.

She held the magazine out towards Hilda, who was relaxing next to her with a magazine of her own. Pointing to a pair of gold and purple hair clips, she asked, “do you think I could pull these off?”

“Oh, girl. GIRL.” Hilda gave an emphatic nod. “Those would look so good on you! Purple is definitely your color.”

Lysithea smiled. It was fun to imagine…

Mostly because there was absolutely nothing else to do.

It had been a week since the fall of Garreg Mach. The group had found their way to Conand Tower, though Lysithea did not recall the journey; she had lost consciousness revitalizing Flayn after the wolf attack, and did not wake back up until hours later. Thankfully, her light frame made it easy for the others to carry her.

Flayn still had a large, visible scar running down her face. The girl was clearly deeply self-conscious about it, yet endlessly grateful to still be alive. Claude and Lorenz, bless their dumb boy hearts, had been showering her in compliments all week to make her feel better. It had taken some time, but it finally seemed to be working.

They set up their ‘base of operations,’ as Claude called it, five stories up by way of the main stairwell, then one story back down through a side stairwell, into a nice and hidden storage room. They had been able to use some old discarded sacks and cloth for bedding and insulation, and it was unlikely any Imperial patrols would search the tower this thoroughly if they came across it. It’s not like they would be looking for a group of escaped teens, right?

After a day spent settling in and resting, Claude decreed that it was time to head out and start looking for their classmates. Stealth and subtlety was the name of the game with so much of the surrounding area still being scoured by the Imperial army. However, on the fourth day, they had come across…

“Ignatz!” Hilda called out, as the young man nervously made his way back into the base. “Yoohoo~”

Aside from reading magazines and playing cards, Hilda decided that a chief source of entertainment could be derived from shamelessly flirting with Ignatz, who looked as if he wanted to curl up and die from embarrassment every time.

“Uhm, ah, hello, Hilda, everyone,” he said. “I’ve checked the floors above and below us. Still...nothing. At all. Ever.”

Lysithea rolled her eyes. Something about the slow, neurotic way Ignatz talked always made her want to tell him to hurry it up.

“Great job, Iggy Pop,” Claude said, putting down his cards. “Hey, I know. Why don’t we play Go Fish?”

Flayn’s eyes lit up. “There is a card game...with fish?”

“I had a feeling you’d like that one.”

Things settled back into standard banter. Despite the occasional heated moment between Lorenz and Claude, everyone seemed to be getting along well, for which Lysithea was thankful. Being forced to stay hidden in a storage room for a week would drive many people to madness, but the Golden Deer class had always gotten along pretty well.

She heard her stomach let out a distressed gurgle. Well, entertainment wasn’t the only thing to worry about...they were also going to run out of their rations soon. She had a feeling they wouldn’t be able to get along this well when they were starving.

When it came time to sleep, it had been widely agreed upon that several shelves should be moved to create a special walled-off area for the girls. Lysithea, Flayn, and Hilda slept on one side while Claude, Lorenz, and Ignatz slept on the other. The sack bedding was better than nothing, but still not particularly comfortable. Plus, Hilda had a tendency to reach out and grope Lysithea in her sleep, and she was pretty sure minimizing groping had been the whole point of moving the shelves in the first place.

The next morning, Claude dished out another serving of dry rations for breakfast. Though her stomach protested, Lysithea declined. She had long learned to think of herself as the most expendable member of any given group. Might as well let someone else with a life expectancy eat.

“I’m gonna go patrol,” she announced to the group, hoping the task would keep her mind off of such grim thoughts. She threw on her school uniform - a bit dirty, but still the warmest thing she had to wear - and headed up the stairs out of the storage room.

“Lysithea, may I accompany you?” came a soft voice from behind her. Lysithea turned to see Flayn, watching her with her wide, innocent eyes.

“Sure, why not?” Lysithea responded. She could think of worse people to spend time with. “Keep up, though.”

“Of course!” Flayn eagerly rushed after her, and the two young girls walked side by side back down to the base of the tower.

Lysithea let her gaze settle on Flayn’s face for a moment, on that scar that even Lysithea’s miraculous healing powers couldn’t make fade. It would likely accompany her for the rest of her life. But she was alive. She would have a rest of her life.

“Ah,” Flayn finally said, feeling Lysithea’s gaze upon her. A hand reached up and ran a finger down along the scar. “I...do not know if I ever thanked you properly. For saving my life. That day is...a blur, but I know it was you who resuscitated me. And I know that it...took a lot out of you. You sacrificed your own safety for mine. I shall not forget that.”

“Okay,” Lysithea said, turning slightly red in the face over this excessive praise. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

“But one thing does linger on my mind,” Flayn went on, as if ignoring her. “And that is the sheer amount of magical power necessary to have done what you did. I had no idea you were so powerful. Truly, you must be very gifted--”

“Goddess, Flayn, will you shut up?” Lysithea snapped before she could stop herself.

Flayn fell quiet. Lysithea mentally kicked herself. It’s not her fault, she chided herself. She couldn’t possibly know how much of a curse your gift really is.

They stepped outside into the crisp morning air. It was still early Great Tree Moon, and while spring would soon be upon them, the wind was bitingly cold without the sun rising to warm up the air.

They walked for a bit in painfully awkward silence. All was still outside Conand Tower.

“Look, Flayn--” Lysithea began.

“It is okay,” Flayn said, her voice as unendingly polite as always. “You said not to worry about it, so I shall not worry about it.”

Lysithea bit the inside of her cheek. Rearranging the building blocks of reality to disintegrate an opponent? Easy. Apologizing to a friend for being an ass? Very, very hard.

“I just--”

“Shh!”

Lysithea’s first reaction was shock. What, Flayn was just going to shush her now to keep her from talking? Then she noticed the crouched, alert look she had suddenly adopted, and then Lysithea heard it too.

Voices.

“Of all the places to lose a wheel...you know this place gives me the bloody creeps.”

“I’ll have it fixed in two shakes, sir! No worries at all, sir!”

“You bloody well better. You know, I heard there are monsters in that tower. Big, creepy, scaly beasties.”

“I’m sure that’s just a wossname, sir. Uh, folklore, sir. Very rich cultural history these Fhaerghusians have, sir.”

“Rich cultural load of bollocks is more like it…”

“Enough, private. We’ve got to get our payload back to the Empress toot sweet or it’ll be all our heads hanging from the gates of Enbarr.”

Lysithea and Flayn had silently moved forward and taken up position behind a large rock overlooking the road. As the various voices bickered amongst themselves, Lysithea ever so slightly peeked her head up, assessing the situation.

6 men in Imperial uniforms, loitering about by a three wagon caravan. The front wagon had lost a wheel going over a particularly aggressive root jutting onto the road. The wagon on the end was open, and seemed to be where four of the soldiers rode while two drove the wagon in front.

And the middle wagon was covered in a thick tarp. Lysithea squinted her eyes. “We’ve got the get our payload back to the Empress…”

Lysithea didn’t know what it was, but if Edelgard wanted it, then she wanted it.

“Flayn,” she hissed. “Can you, quietly but quickly, go get the others? Tell them to bring their weapons.”

Flayn nodded silently, and hurried off back towards Conand Tower. Lysithea waited, keeping her breathing steady. Six Golden Deer, six Imperial soldiers. They’d faced worse odds in the past...albeit always with Professor Byleth by their side…

She could hear footsteps crunching over the ground as the soldiers patrolled the area, waiting for the wheel to be fixed. She just hoped nobody came close enough to notice her crouching awkwardly behind this rock.

“Oi! Who’s that?” a voice called out.

Lysithea kept her head down, bringing to mind a potent spell to fling at anyone about to enter her line of sight. She wouldn’t be able to take on all six alone, but hopefully the element of surprise would allow her to make a run back for the tower. Please, Flayn, be quick…

“You with the Kingdom, then?” the voice asked. Lysithea found that a bit odd.

“Yes,” said another voice. She found that even odder.

And then chaos erupted behind her. Screams, shouts, and gurgles. It did not last long. About 30 seconds later, the air was silent again.

Lysithea slowly lifted her head back up over the rock, and saw five Imperial corpses scattered upon the ground. The sixth soldier was crawling forward on his stomach, leaving a trail of blood behind him. He reached out, weakly, for a discarded weapon, but a heavy boot stepped on his hand.

“No.” An axe swung down, embedding itself deep into the soldier’s skull.

“Alright, you sons of bitches! Hand over the goods, or we’ll--” came Claude’s voice from behind her. It trailed off as the sight came into view.

“Goddess,” Lorenz muttered. “This was a massacre. What happened here?”

And then came Flayn’s voice. “Dedue?”

The large man from Duscurr removed his axe from the Imperial skull, and began wiping away the blood with a cloth. “Flayn. Golden Deer. I am pleased to see you yet live.”

About a half dozen soldiers, dressed in the colours of Faerghus, were accompanying Dedue. Lysithea quickly scanned them all, but did not recognize any others as her former classmates.

“Yeah! Hell yeah!” Claude said, stepping forward to embrace Dedue in a hug. When Dedue made absolutely no move to reciprocate this, Claude swiftly folded his arms back up as if he had planned this the entire time. “Cool, cool, cool,” he said. “Great to see another friendly face. We were hoping to bump into our fellow Golden Deer, but hey, I’ll take what I can get. Welcome to the gang, Dedue!”

Dedue looked at the other soldiers, then back to Claude, his face as blank and unreadable as always. “The...gang?”

“Well, there’s me, Lorenz, Ignatz, Hilda, Flayn and Lysithea,” he said, pointing to each in turn. They all waved, dumbfounded, except for Hilda, who gave a curtsy and winked.

“Ah, yes. The...gang.” Dedue blinked a few times. “I appreciate your invitation, but must decline. I am on a mission from His Highness.”

“Dimitri?” Lorenz asked. “He is alive, and orchestrating missions? That is great news!”

“Yes,” Dedue said. “He is...alive.”

Lysithea caught the slightest hint of a pause in that sentence, but nobody else seemed to acknowledge it.

“So, what is this mission?” Claude asked. “Anything we can help with? I wouldn’t mind having a king owe me a few favors.”

Dedue shook his head. “It is done. We are to recover what the Imperials are transporting and bring it back to him.” He waved a hand towards the middle cart, still completely covered by a tarp. “It will be a most useful resource. As will all of you, I’ve no doubt.”

“Resource? Wait, what?” Ignatz asked.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Claude said, holding out his hands. “Let’s calm down. These are my people. You can’t just conscript them for Dimitri.”

“Claude!” Lorenz snapped. “We’ve finally stumbled upon the first signs of a real resistance to Edelgard’s tyranny! Why would we turn down the offer to join them!?”

“Ohhh, a resistance! A resistance, okay! Yeah, I saw a lot of people resist her back at Garreg Mach. You remember Garreg Mach? Nice place, extremely defensible? Yeah, she came and KICKED our SHIT. And now we’re going to...what, take her down after she’s already bolstered by that victory, able to get more soldiers from the Empire, and completely lacking in any sort of defensive fortifications?” Claude looked around at the group, Alliance and Kingdom natives alike. “Go die for a cause if you want, but I’d rather live for one.”

“What cause, exactly, will you be living for, Claude?” Lorenz snapped back.

“Maybe I think life is cause enough,” Claude responded.

“It matters not.” Dedue reached out a gloved hand and gripped the tarp. Two of his soldiers joined him, and together they yanked it off the top of the middle wagon.

“Urrrrrggggghhhhh….”

Under the tarp was a cage.

“URRRRAAAAAGGGGGHHHH…”

And inside the cage was--

“Brother!” Flayn cheered, rushing over.

“Urrrraaaaggggh my back…” Seteth groaned, stretching. But when he noticed Flayn, his eyes glowed. “FLAYN! Oh, thank the Goddess! Thank the Goddess…”

The Kingdom soldiers set to work breaking open the cage, then freeing Seteth of his manacles. He looked over the assembled motley crew, and scratched at his unkempt beard. Flayn leapt at him, embracing him in an eager hug. The two held each other for a long, tender moment.

Lysithea couldn’t help but smile.

“Seteth,” Dedue said, tactlessly interrupting the moment. “I have been instructed to bring you to His Highness. We must leave now, before any further Imperial patrols find the site of this ambush.”

“Right…” Seteth said, clearly still dazed by this sudden turn of events. “Come, Flayn. I take it the rest of you will be joining us?” He looked over the assembled former students. “Lysithea, it is good to see you. Lorenz, Ignatz, I hope you are both well. Ugh...Claude…”

Claude responded with finger guns.

“And...oh dear.” Seteth’s eyes landed on Hilda, who was desperately trying to adjust her top to give herself more cleavage.

“Uhm...hello, Mr. Seteth!” she said, offering a dainty wave.

“Right…” Seteth shook his head. “So, you’ve all joined Dimitri, have you?”

“No!” Claude said.

“Such a pity,” Seteth said with a shrug. “Well, be safe. Come along, Flayn.”

Seteth moved to follow along after Dedue and the Kingdom soldiers.

After a few steps, he turned around. Flayn had not moved.

“Flayn?”

“No,” she said.

Seteth looked for a moment as if he’d been physically struck.

“Excuse me?” he asked.

“Claude is my friend,” she said, defiantly. “Claude, and Lorenz, and...Lysithea.”

The two girls locked eyes, and shared a slow nod of understanding.

“I am a Golden Deer, brother,” she said, planting her feet.

“Goddess, I think she’s gonna say it,” Claude whispered, barely holding back laughter.

“And Edelgard is going to learn…”

“Holy shit, she’s going to say it.”

“To fear the deer!”

Seteth groaned. “So you mean to tell me you’d rather follow that...that miscreant...than the rightful king of Faerghus?”

Flayn nodded. “That is right, brother.”

Seteth sighed again, and turned back to Dedue. “I’m sorry, but...I guess I’m staying too. I won’t leave my sister’s side. Not again.”

Dedue was silent for a moment. Lysithea perked up, suddenly worried if she would have to use her magic after all. The Kingdom soldiers had their hands on their blades.

Finally, Dedue, held up a hand, causing his soldiers to relax.

“His Highness will react...poorly to this news,” he said. He turned to face Claude. “I hope you know what you are doing.”

“Pissing off royalty and making things more needlessly complicated for everyone around me?” Claude responded, tapping the side of his nose. “Don’t worry, I’ve got a lot of experience in this area.”

With no further comment, Dedue turned to leave, his retinue leaving with him.

“Claude,” Lorenz said, his voice low, barely containing his anger. “What are you planning, exactly?”

Claude grinned.

“Search the wagon and the bodies,” he called out. “I want anything interesting or valuable collected. Come on, don’t be squeamish.”

With a few grumbles of disgust, they set to work thoroughly pulling apart the scene of the battle.

“We really lucked out, huh?” Hilda whispered, sidling up to Lysithea. “Finally, we have a man around.”

Lysithea gave her a dry look. “What about Claude, Lorenz, and Ignatz?”

“Oh, those are just boys. But Seteth...he’s got a certain masculine energy, you know? I think it’s the beard.”

“He’s like five times your age.”

“Mmm, yeah he is.”

Thankfully, Lysithea was saved from further unquenchable thirst by Ignatz crying out, “Uhm, I think I found something, I think!”

He came back around from the front wagon, holding up a small booklet. Claude rushed over and snatched it eagerly from his hands.

Claude flipped through the booklet. A grin began to spread across his face.

“Yep,” he said, “Oh, yep, this will do very nicely.” He swiftly pocketed it, then clapped his hands. “Let’s move this wagon and these bodies! It’d be positively rude to just clog up a road like this.”

“What’s in the book..?” Ignatz asked.

Claude clapped a hand on his classmate’s shoulder.

“Ignatz, my boy,” he said, “inside that little book you found is the future.”


	3. Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claude has a plan. It goes badly.

Claude was being even more insufferable than usual.

Once they had returned to their hideout in Conand Tower, Claude had taken his little booklet and gone off somewhere to scheme. Attempts to weasel some answers out of him had been met with a complete stonewalling.

In the meantime…

“This is...certainly a set up you’ve got here,” Seteth said, looking around the storage room. Somehow, having an actual adult in their little hideaway made Lysithea feel incredibly childish, like they had just been having a slumber party while the nation was at war. Looking around and seeing the discarded magazines and playing cards, she realized...they kind of had been.

“I see you set up some dividers between the boys and girls beds, at least. That is...heartening,” Seteth went on.

“Yes, sir, no hanky or panky would ever have transpired here,” Lorenz said with an almost panicked earnestness.

“Especially not with your sister, sir,” Ignatz added, which earned him an ice-cold stare from Seteth. Flayn, beside him, just looked uncomfortable.

“You’re always welcome to join us on our side if you want, though, Mr. Seteth,” Hilda cooed. “I actually think the area I’ve got set up here is very comfortable…”

She didn’t seem to have much reaction to Lysithea jabbing her with her elbow.

“That is quite alright,” Seteth said. “I wouldn’t want to encourage intermingling of the sexes. We have enough to worry about right now. I am going to see if I can find any ingredients for a healing salve for Flayn’s…” he trailed off, as if unable to say the word scar, and left the room. Flayn glanced around at everyone else, then awkwardly followed her older brother.

“Goddess, I’d like to intermingle sexes with him,” Hilda said after he was gone.

“Not even remotely what any of those words mean,” Lysithea said, annoyed. “Have you always been like this?”

“Sorry,” Hilda said, with a grin that betrayed she wasn’t even remotely sorry. “Back at Garreg Mach, there were always students or knights who wanted to shower me in praise and I guess I sort of got used to it. It’s been so lonely here with the only boys around being…” she waved her arms irritably in the direction of Lorenz and Claude.

“Fair enough,” Lysithea conceded.

“We can hear you, you know.”

“Shut up, Lorenz.”

Lysithea looked towards the door, debating chasing after Seteth and Flayn. She wanted to make up to Flayn for snapping at her earlier. Helping ease the pain of her scar, or at least masking it visually seemed like a good way to do that.

But...what if Flayn asked her about why she had snapped? What would she say?

Could she really explain...everything that had happened to her?

The screams of her dying siblings rose up around her…

“Lysithea?”

“What?”

She snapped back to reality, with Hilda’s hand gently shaking her shoulder. “You sort of zoned out there for a moment. You okay? You should probably eat something.”

Lysithea nodded, slowly. “Yeah...that must be it.”

That night they were ushered to bed early by Seteth, and any late night games or horseplay seemed unlikely with the stern older man right nearby. Truth be told, that suited Lysithea just fine. At times, the late-night nonsensical arguments of Lorenz and Claude, or the girl talk Hilda always wanted to get into with her, could be grating. Of course, now that she finally had some peace and quiet, she found she didn’t care for that either.

The argument with Flayn was really getting under her skin, and stirring up unpleasant old memories, ghosts that she had hoped would be laid to rest by now.

She didn’t feel like she slept, but time must have passed, because soon she was being shaken awake.

“We’ve got a big day ahead of us!” Claude was saying. “Come on, up on your feet! Hup hup hup!”

There was much grumbling and resistance. Lorenz grumbled, “I would prefer a rooster if I must be woken up by a giant cock.”

“Haha, wow, okay,” Claude responded. “Come on, aren’t you all ready to actually start living again? We’ve been holed up in this tower for a week!” As the others irritably got dressed, he went over to the storage bins holding their dry rations, and gave them a meager shake. “We’re running out of food, if you can even call this shit food. This whole room is starting to smell like feet. When’s the last time you had a bath, Ignatz?”

“Er…”

“Exactly.”

“Excuse me, Von Riegan,” Seteth chimed in, “but would you perhaps be willing to get to the point? What exactly are you talking about?”

By this point, the girls had finished changing into their day clothes, and were moving the shelf back so they could join the others. Claude, fists on his hips, faced all of them with a grin.

“Come on, I’ll show you.”

With a good deal of mumbling, mostly from Lorenz, the rest of the group followed after Claude as he left the storage room and began to head upstairs to another level of Conand Tower. Up there was what must have once been a command center, back when this tower was actually manned by Faerghus forces. A large circular table sat at the exact center, with many uncomfortable looking chairs surrounding it.

Lysithea had seen it before, both when their class had come here for the first time on that mission many months ago, and recently when they scouted the tower to make sure it was unoccupied and thus safe for them to hide in. Both those times, it had been completely devoid of anything except dust, clearly not put to use in ages. But now…

Now it had all of Fodlan on it.

“Claude, what is all this?” Lysithea asked.

“We’re gonna take on the Empire,” Claude answered. “But we’re not gonna do it by announcing ourselves and charging head first into Enbarr like Dimitri would. We’re not playing at some noble underground resistance. We’re going to do exactly what we did yesterday. Move in, hit them where it hurts, and move out before anyone even knows we were there.”

“We didn’t actually do anything yesterday,” Hilda pointed out. “That was all Dedue, we just sort of showed up and looted the bodies.”

“Okay, yes,” Claude conceded. “But it was a good plan! And we moved the cart and bodies off the road, so nobody knows what happened to that last wagon. That means more wagons are going to be coming through. Wagons bearing food, weapons, and gold.”

“How could you possibly know that?” Lorenz asked, crossing his arms, clearly skeptical.

Claude pulled the tiny notebook out of his back pocket. “It’s all in here. The new trade routes the Empire is planning as they push into Leicester and Faerghus. We can move around, hit them, steal their supplies, cause fear and confusion. All without painting giant targets on our backs.”

There was silence in the room as the rest of them considered this plan of action.

Silence, followed by an outburst.

"No!”

Everyone turned to look at Lorenz.

“No, no, no, you...you son of a...I won’t do it!”

“Whoa, calm down, Lorenz,” Hilda said. “What’s the big deal, exactly? I mean, sure, it’s more work than just hanging out here all day, but…”

“Claude would have us become bandits! Common thieves! Rogues!”

“Now hold on just a--”

“Scoundrels! Ne’er-do-wells! Rapscallions!”

“Lorenz, shut the hell up,” Claude snapped. “Look, if you want to go charge valiantly into battle and challenge Edelgard to one-on-one combat or whatever insanely stupid notion of honor you’ve got rattling around in that oval head of yours, I’m sure you can find Dedue and Dimitri and secure your skull a nice position on the walls of Enbarr.”

He paused, and scanned the room, stopping to make eye contact with every one of them.

“Teach didn’t teach us everything we know so that we could put it to waste against an insurmountable enemy,” he went on. “He taught us so that we could survive. That’s what he wanted for us. To live on. And we may be living in a different world now, but I intend to do whatever I can to keep us all alive. For Teach.”

Lysithea let out a sigh. It was a good move. Everyone had their reasons to love Professor Byleth, and by invoking his memory, Claude was securing the emotional support necessary for whatever he was planning. It was manipulative as hell, sure, but…

Well, Lysithea knew a thing or two about doing whatever you needed to do to survive.

The screams…

“I am sorry, but I am not quite so swayed by the stirring dissertation of a barely pubescent teenager,” Seteth said, joining Lorenz in the skeptics corner. “I have a duty. Responsibilities to the church, and to Lady Rhea. You may have forgotten, but she is still missing, and without her, a return to order is all but impossible.”

“My brother is right,” Flayn said, with a slow nod.

“Correct, Flayn. So, we will--”

“Which is why I thank you, Claude, and everyone, for agreeing to look after me while he goes about it.”

Seteth’s jaw dropped open.

“No!” He finally said, after finding his voice. “I will not be leaving you to this...this life of…”

“Skullduggery?”

“Thank you, Lorenz. This life is skullduggery!”

Flayn crossed her arms, squaring off against Seteth. Despite being half his size, it seemed clear to Lysithea that she would annihilate him in this match-up.

“Then I suppose your only option, brother,” she said, stressing that last word into a vicious slur, “is to stay and ensure we do not stray from the righteous path.”

“That...you…” He sputtered himself into silence, then turned to face Claude. Stepping forward, he placed a finger on Claude’s chest, bringing his face down to meet the young man’s on his level.

“Mark my words,” he whispered, “if any harm should befall Flayn as a result of your recklessness, I will personally find new and exciting ways to visit pain upon you.”

Lysithea strained to hear Claude’s response, but could not quite make it out. But whatever it was, Seteth did not seem to be expecting it. He took a step back and nodded severely.

“Any other questions?” Claude asked the group.

Ignatz raised his hand.

“Great, then let’s get to work!”

Ignatz lowered his hand.

Claude was setting an ambitious schedule for them, determined to make their next hit in just two days time. That meant, in the meantime, they would have to do some training.

It was a bittersweet experience for all of them, as it would be the first time in a year that they would train without the caring and watchful gaze of Professor Byleth nearby.

On another large, empty floor of Conand Tower, sacks of stale vegetables were set up like training dummies. Ignatz was practicing his archery, while Flayn let out the occasional adorable battle cry and charged one with a lance. Seteth, watching Flayn nervously, practiced his swordsmanship and footwork.

Claude and Hilda clashed axes in a sparring match. While Claude was much faster, dancing around while Hilda just watched him, she could hit like a sack of bricks, and one lucky punch sent Claude sliding across the room.

Lysithea sat nearby and watched. Nobody chastised her for not joining in on the training. They knew, as she did, that her magic was powerful and volatile enough to wreak havoc on all the others in the room. When she needed them, her crests would be there for her. That was a certainty.

The screams…

Suddenly she realized something strange in the makeshift training room, and that was a Lorenz-sized empty space.

Sliding out without anyone paying much attention to her, she made her way down to their storage room hideout and found Lorenz stuffing some belongings into a bag.

“Ah,” he said, coming to a halt as he saw Lysithea enter.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“What are any of us doing, Lysithea?” he asked. “This is completely absurd. Claude is...he’s lost his mind if he thinks this game of his is going to have any real impact on the war. You all might enjoy playing as bandits, but I cannot do it.”

Lysithea stared at him for a moment, debated slapping him, but instead opted to just ask, “where are you going to go?”

“I haven’t decided yet. I may head home, assist my father with whatever he needs to see to the safety of our lands. Or I may see if I can find Dimitri. Claude’s speech about my head ending up on the walls of Enbarr does not frighten me. The only reason he thinks a resistance wouldn’t work is because he lacks conviction. Unlike him, I actually have beliefs.”

Lysithea frowned. “I thought you weren’t religious.”

“I didn’t say belief in the Goddess. Just...beliefs.”

They stood in silence for a moment. Lorenz was just...looking at her. He had not resumed packing. Just slap him, said a voice in Lysithea’s head, but she continued to ignore it.

“I don’t think you should leave,” she finally said.

“And why is that, exactly?” Lorenz asked.

“Because w--” she caught herself, and switched courses immediately. “Claude needs you.”

“Hah!” Lorenz actually laughed out loud at that. “There’s nobody here who needs me around less than Claude. Which works for me, truly.”

“No, Claude may not *want* you around,” Lysithea said, realizing after she said it how harsh it sounded, but she went on, “but he *needs* you around, whether he likes it or not. He’s too charismatic. Nobody else will stand up to him. Hilda will just shrug and go along with his schemes, Ignatz couldn’t stand up to an armored bear stuffy, Flayn is fascinated by him and far too naive to see any potential danger, and Seteth will be completely handicapped by Flayn’s desires. But you’ll actually tell Claude, to his face, when he’s wrong. He’ll need to hear that now and again.”

Lorenz thought about this. The line of attack seemed to be working. “And what of you? Can you not be the one to tell Claude he’s wrong?”

Lysithea almost instinctively replied, “I won’t be around forever,” but stopped herself in time. “I could always use the help.”

Lorenz gave her...an odd look. She realized she was probably giving him an odd look back.

“Okay,” he finally said. “I think I’ve got a reason to stay. For now.”

Lysithea let out a sigh of relief. Somewhere in the back of her mind was the question: why do you care so much if Lorenz stays or goes? She chose to ignore it.

The next day and a half was filled with training and strategizing. Their gear was limited and poor quality but by all accounts they should outnumber the guards in the Imperial caravan, and all of them were battle-hardened from their year at the academy. They would set up around the road, and ambush from all directions. Ideally, the Imperials would be so overwhelmed so quickly they would surrender without the need for bloodshed. But, in the likely event they resisted, they were all ready.

When Lysithea hit her flimsy bed that night, she was so worn out that she didn’t even mind Hilda spooning her as they drifted off to sleep…

“Twenty minutes, everyone,” Claude said, as they staked out the area around the planned ambush one last time. They had already scouted it earlier, gotten a feel for the surrounding landscape, made sure to remove any breakable twigs that could give away their location or trip them up in a scuffle.

Now it was almost time for the main event. Lysithea took several deep breaths to calm herself. She had killed many times by now, but admittedly this would be the smallest group she’d ever fought in. Their class had consisted of twelve students, and then there was Professor Byleth and the battalions they had been encouraged to lead to prove their authoritative and strategic knowledge. Now they were down to six students and Seteth.

She wondered what her other former classmates were doing right now. If they were fighting the Empire as well, in their own ways. If they were even still alive…

Something bumped into her, and she spun around.

“Sorry!” hissed Ignatz.

“Goddess, Ignatz, be careful! I nearly evaporated you!” Lysithea hissed back.

“S-sorry,” Ignatz said again. “I’ll just...wait over here.”

“Please. Thank you.” Lysithea rolled her eyes at him as he moved away a bit to take up his position behind a tree. He began to draw an arrow, preparing to nock it into his bow and hold it out threateningly at the approaching Imperial guards. Lysithea sighed. There may never have been a less intimidating roadside bandit in the history of roadside banditry than Ignatz Victor.

And then, it was just the waiting game. Aside from Ignatz, she could not easily see any of her companions. She knew Claude, Hilda, and Seteth were closer to the road, while Lorenz and Flayn were off on the other side, mirroring hers and Ignatz’s positions.

Then they could hear the crunch of wagon wheels coming up the road.

Lysithea steeled herself. Wait for the signal. Wait for the signal…

She could see the wagon roll into view. She saw it come to a halt. But she didn’t hear Claude’s signal.

Something was wrong.

“Uh, guys,” Claude finally called out. “There’s...nobody here.”

Lysithea and Ignatz exchanged an uncertain glance. Lysithea shrugged, and began to make her way towards the road. She could hear Ignatz following hesitantly behind her.

Claude, Hilda, and Seteth were circling the Imperial wagon, looking it all over, but Claude’s comment was right: it was entirely unmanned. No driver, no guards, nothing.

Lysithea felt a shift in the air, one that she knew well. Magic.

“Get--” she began to say, when a blast of dark magic flew past her head, narrowly missing her and crashing into the wagon, cracking the wooden door.

“Ambush!” Claude called out. “Sons of bitches, that was our idea! You can’t ambush our ambush!”

“Ah, Mr. Von Riegan, I think you’ll find that in war, I can do whatever I want.”

Lysithea recognized that voice, that dark, almost snake-like hiss. She spun around to see Hubert, Minister of the Imperial Household, adorned in pitch black robes. He was never one to worry about overstating his intentions.

Behind him, a half dozen Imperial soldiers fanned out, lances leveled at the would-be ambushers.

“Alright,” Claude said, slowly raising his hands into the air. “Well played. You ambushed my ambush. Game can recognize game.”

“We are not stupid, you know,” Hubert said, a smarmy smirk spreading across his face. “After our last carriage transporting Mr. Seteth went missing, we figured foul play was afoot. We also knew it was not Blaiddyd’s style, to simply make our men disappear without taking credit for it or issuing some sort of formal challenge. No, Edelgard figured this was you.”

“Huh, you know,” Claude said, “I’m flattered! The Empress clearly thinks highly of me.”

Hubert nodded, stepping forward. “Highly enough to dispatch me, personally, to apprehend you,” he said.

“Ah,” Claude said, shaking his head. “I guess she doesn’t think THAT highly of me, then, if she thought I only had *one* ambush planned.”

“Heeeeeyaaaaah!” squeaked Flayn. A massive sweep of her lance, which was enchanted with frozen magical energy, swept the legs out from the soldiers lined up behind Hubert. He spun around, and saw Lorenz, arrow nocked and pointed straight at him.

“Stand down,” Lorenz said. “I will shoot you if I must.”

“Hah! I ambushed your ambush of our ambush!” Claude jeered. “What do you say about that!?”

Hubert sighed, and snapped his fingers. A blast of miasma caused Lorenz’s bow to snap in his hands. He yelped and dropped the ruined weapon to the ground.

“Really, Von Riegan, a pathetic effort,” Hubert said, spinning back around and gliding forward. “I have very specific orders to bring you to Hrym with the others, and I do not like to disappoint my liege.”

The other soldiers were clamoring to their feet and turning on Flayn. Assuming that Claude, Hilda, and Seteth would be able to handle Hubert on their own, she turned her focus onto the underlings, opening up a Luna spell over them, and sending dark magic pulsing down over their bodies. Four of them were instantly incapacitated, and Flayn bashed a fifth over the head with her frozen lance. Lorenz, discarding his bow, charged forward, grabbed a lance from one of the fallen soldiers, and slammed it into the chest of the sixth, denting his chestplate and likely cracking a rib or two.

While this was transpiring, Hubert was striding forward. Hilda charged toward him, but Hubert knocked her aside with another attack of miasma. While she could take a punch with the best of them, she had always struggled with a susceptibility to offensive magic. Seteth danced in, sword at the ready, but the Imperial Minister flickered through the air and was suddenly behind Seteth. He spun around as Seteth stumbled forward, and channeled a mire spell into his back. Seteth collapsed forwards into the mud.

When he turned back around, Claude was charging forward, his face in a determined grimace but no battle cry escaping his lips to give away his approach. Nonetheless, Hubert was ready for him, and grasped onto Claude’s arm before he could swing his axe down.

“As I said, a pathetic effort,” Hubert grunted, as the two of them struggled. “The three of you together could not land a single hit on me!”

Claude grumbled something unintelligible.

“Hm? You’ll have to speak up, Von Riegan.”

“I said...four.”

Hubert gasped, and released his grip on Claude. Stumbling to the side and leaning against the wagon, he looked down to see an arrow protruding from his robes, blood seeping out of the wound.

Ignatz stood staring at him, bow still hanging in the air. He slowly lowered it. “Uhm, sorry,” he said.

“Ignatz,” Claude said, “that was a good thing. Please don’t apologize for shooting the man trying to kill me.”

“Right. Sorry.”

“Goddess, you don’t have to apologize to me either! Oh, forget it.”

Claude turned to Hubert, who had a hand placed around the shaft of the arrow. He looked up at the leader of the Golden Deer with hate in his eyes.

“Dick move,” he grunted, and then he was gone.

“Hey...hey!” one of the Imperial guards called out, scrambling to his feet and rushing over to where Hubert had been standing a moment before. “You were our ride back! You can’t leave us here--”

The guard’s pleas turned into a gurgle as Claude grabbed him by the throat and shoved him against the wagon. His axe levelled against the man’s neck.

“Please…” the guard gurgled.

“Claude, we won!” Hilda called out, as she helped Seteth get back to his feet. “We don’t have to kill any of them.”

“Leaving witnesses behind kind of compromises the whole ‘the Empire doesn’t know what we’re doing’ part of the plan,” Claude shot back. Blood was starting to well in a thin line on the guard’s neck.

“Hubert already got away,” Lorenz said. “It won’t be long until Edelgard knows we’re still out here. Killing these men will change nothing.”

Claude sighed, and relaxed his grip. The Imperial fell to the ground, gasping for air. As he did so, Claude turned to the others, who had been rounded up by Flayn, Lorenz, and Lysithea.

“Get out of here,” Claude said. “Go back to your homes, or somebody’s home, I don’t care. But if anyone asks what happened here today…” He paused, and Lysithea spotted that same glint in his eye he’d gotten a few times already the past week. “Tell them you met the Von Riegan Gang...and that nobody survives meeting them twice.”

All six guards, including the one still coughing pathetically, took the hint, and ran off down the way the wagon had come.

Flayn lowered her lance and stepped forward. “I am glad we did not kill them, Claude. You did the right thing.”

“Whatever,” Claude grumbled. “Doesn’t matter.”

“I have a question,” Lorenz said, raising his hand politely. “Two questions, actually. The first is, ‘Von Riegan Gang?’ And my second question is, ‘Seriously?’”

“Change of plans,” Claude suddenly said, clapping his hands together. “We pack up everything of use from Conand Tower and leave first thing in the morning.”

“Ahh,” Seteth said. “Finally realized we’re in over our heads, are we? No shame in that, Claude, admitting you’ve made a mistake takes courage. We’ll find Dimitri, and--”

“Shut up,” Claude said, which shocked everyone, Seteth most of all. Seteth looked about to protest, but Flayn shot him a look.

“We’re not joining Dimitri,” Claude said. “We’re going to Hrym.”

Lysithea felt her heart drop.

“Hrym!?” Lorenz asked. “I don’t object, necessarily, but...why?”

“Hubert wanted to bring us there. Said he’d bring us there ‘with the others.’”

“What others?” Flayn asked.

“I don’t know, but...he might have meant the other Golden Deer. If they’re out there, prisoners of the Empire, we’re going to go get them.”

“So, in response to getting thoroughly roughed up by Hubert, your retaliatory plan is to...go exactly where he wanted to take us in the first place?” Seteth asked.

“Yep.”

“That seems ill advised.”

“Yep. Help me move this wagon, we can use it to carry the supplies.”

As Claude and the others began to take the wagon and head back towards Conand Tower, Lysithea took up the rear. Hrym. She knew the place well.

The screams of her siblings still echoed in that place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with the words "The Von Riegan Gang" finally being said in the fanfiction, I guess we've kind of come to the end of the "introduction" chapters. Thank you to everyone who has left a nice comment or kudos so far! They are very appreciated.
> 
> As I said at the beginning, I don't have too heavy an outline for this fic. I want to let the characters take the drivers seat and see where they end up without Byleth there to reign in their worst impulses. I hope you'll stick with me and enjoy!


	4. Aqua Profunda

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lysithea gets the band back together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was hoping to bang out this chapter earlier in the week, but I got sick for a few days, which really dampens one's desire to sit in front of a keyboard and type for a few hours. Anyway, I hope you enjoy, and your nice comments are always appreciated <3

Hilda stood up and stretched her arms over her head, letting out a great sigh. She pulled out a handkerchief with cute pink embroidery and dabbed some sweat off of her forehead.

“Whew!” she called out. “That journey was tough...but I can’t believe, after all that hard work, we’re finally here in Hrym!”

Lorenz turned around in his saddle to glare at her. “Are you...you napped the entire time!”

Hilda put a hand on her hip, giving Lorenz an offended stare back. “Well it wasn’t exactly a relaxing nap! So bumpy.”

Lorenz looked about ready to burst a blood vessel, until Seteth placed a calming hand on his shoulder.

“No need to fight. She’s right, we did make it, and with no further...complications,” he said, causing a dark moment to descend on the group as they recalled Hubert nearly thrashing all of them.

Lysithea stood up and stretched as well. Like Hilda, she had stayed in the cart and rested for the majority of the journey. Due to her slender frame and lack of stamina, nobody had objected. Given Hilda was clearly capable of pulling her own weight, however, made the others far less forgiving of her chronic laziness.

The journey had taken a little over a day. They had traveled nonstop since departing Conand Tower, with Lorenz and Seteth switching off with Claude and Ignatz leading the horses at the front of their small caravan, comprised of carts taken from their two fights with the Imperials. Lysithea, Hilda, and Flayn had been allowed to rest inside the middle cart. The men guarding their dainty womenfolk, Lysithea thought cynically. And Hilda.

The other carts were filled with old equipment they had scavenged from the tower, the last of the dry rations, and a few wolf carcasses that Lorenz and Ignatz had successfully hunted before the journey. Lorenz had said something about becoming a real man of the land, fashioning gear out of the pelts, weapons out of the bones, and food out of the meat. Lysithea had a feeling he was overcompensating, and deeply miserable about the lack of good tea and biscuits.

Come to think of it, she hadn’t had anything properly sweet since Garreg Mach. Maybe that was why she was in such a grumpy mood. Well, that and the whole Imperial invasion thing.

As Lorenz and Seteth had been riding up front, Claude and Ignatz had been resting at the back. With the caravan rumbling to a slow halt, Claude was now walking around to the front, stretching and looking at everyone with that excited glint in his eye.

“We’re going to want to get off the road before we get too close to the city,” he announced. “We don’t want any guards asking why a group of teenagers and their green haired dad are trying to get into Hrym with some battered Imperial wagons.”

Before Seteth could protest to that characterization, Lorenz was ready to start pushing back against Claude’s orders.

“Fascinating point, Claude. Waltzing straight into an enemy stronghold does seem to be an incredibly silly idea! Couldn’t you have perchance realized that before we came all this way!?”

“Calm down, don’t get your hairpiece in a knot.” Claude climbed on top of one of the carts to better address the rest of the group. “We’re going to get into Hrym, but we’re going to have to do it smart. Small groups, one or two at a time, with cover stories in case we get stopped by patrols. We don’t all just storm in at once like the world’s least intimidating invasion force.” He scanned around their surroundings. This part of Fodlan was much more lush and verdant than the area around Conand they had come from. Thanks in large part to the Airmid river which separated the Empire and Alliance, there were many farmlands and much fertile soil.

“Our goal here is to find as many of our missing classmates as we can. Hubert implied they’re here in Hrym somewhere, so we’re going to sneak them out. But we’ll need somewhere to sneak them back out to. So what I would suggest, and yes, Lorenz, I am open for discussion on this, is that one of us heads into the city to scout for information while the rest of us find a nice, secluded area and begin fortifying a camp we can use as a home base. Somewhere patrols aren’t likely to stumble across, that we can defend easily against bandits or wild beasts, and flee from easily in a pinch. Hell, we can make it feel like a real home away from home, set up a garden, convert the carts into little shelters. It’ll be just like Garreg Mach! Only not filled with rubble and the corpses of our former mentors.” He looked around at the increasingly horrified expressions of his peers. “Okay, I’m picking up that I should have stopped this inspirational speech before that last sentence. Noted, your feedback is appreciated.”

“I do so enjoy gardening, Claude,” Flayn chimed in, eager to find a positive moment to shine a light on. Claude grinned back at her, and Lysithea thought she saw the slightest hint of a blush on his cheeks.

“We are going to need far more supplies if we are to make such a camp truly defensible, let alone livable,” Seteth said, bringing the mood back down to earth. “And unless you happen to know some reputable vendors in the area willing to give us merchandise for free, I presume you plan to continue thieving.”

“Well,” Claude said, nodding slowly, “Objective A is to find our classmates. We’ll call ‘inconveniencing the Empire’ Objective B. It’s not really stealing if you’re taking from the bad guys, right?”

“I find that logic rather--” Seteth began, but Hilda, Flayn, and Lysithea overrode him with comments of assent.

“So that just leaves...who’ll be our first spy,” Claude said, looking over everyone again.

“Oooh, that sounds like very important, rewarding work!” Hilda said. “Hard pass.”

“I...I suppose I could, er…” Ignatz began, but Claude laughed.

“Goddess, no, Ignatz. Sorry, but you’re not exactly the special agent I have in mind here.”

“I’ll go,” Lysithea said.

The others all turned to look at her. Lorenz in particular had a look of shock on his face.

“But why?” he blurted out before he could stop himself. “This mission is sure to be...quite dangerous. Are you really the best suited to…”

“Oh, you’re right!” Lysithea snapped back. “We shouldn’t send a little girl out to do a man’s job, is that what you’re saying, Lorenz?”

“N-no, I, uh...I…” Lorenz stammered into silence.

Lysithea turned to Claude, who was appraising her carefully. “I know Hrym,” she said to him. “I spent time here back before Garreg Mach. Unless anyone else here can say the same, I’m the best bet to know how to get around and find our people.”

“You make a convincing argument,” Claude said. “Anyone have any objections that aren’t based in unfounded machismo?”

Lorenz sneered at that, but shook his head. Nobody else spoke up.

“Alright then,” Claude announced. “Thanks, Lysithea. We’re all counting on you.”

“I’ll check in 48 hours from now, no matter what,” Lysithea replied. “If I’m not back after that long, assume I was captured, or…”

Claude waved away her concerns. “I’ll see you in 48 hours then.”

As Claude turned away to start ordering the others to get the caravan off the road, Flayn sheepishly walked up to Lysithea. The two girls smiled at each other, though there was still clearly a bit of awkwardness there.

“Please be safe, Lysithea,” Flayn said. “I owe you my life, and I must still repay the favor.”

Lysithea let out an awkward laugh. “Thanks, Flayn. Don’t worry about me...I’ll be fine.”

As she descended down towards the heart of Hrym, she realized there was another reason she had been so quick to volunteer for this mission, one she hadn’t even admitted to herself.

If this mission turned deadly, better she get killed than someone with an actual future.

After about an hour of walking, she could see a checkpoint leading past the low stone walls that surrounded Hrym. Two Imperial soldiers stood on either side. Thankfully, Lysithea had a plan for this. Her clothes were filthy and torn from the past week living in Conand Tower. Plus, she had something else at her disposal, though it was mortifying to think about. Desperate times…

“Hey,” one of the Imperial guards said, lightly jabbing the other with his elbow. “There’s a...little girl on the road?”

“What?” the other asked, who clearly hadn’t been paying attention. “Alone?”

“Yeah,” the first one said, straightening up. “Careful. Could be a trap.”

“What? You mean, like, someone trained a little girl to be an assassin?”

“...What? No, I mean, there may be other people around and the girl is a distraction.”

“Oh.”

Lysithea resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she got close enough to overhear this back and forth. Then, she steeled herself, and…

Showtime.

“Excuse me,” she said, in the softest, highest-pitched, pathetically saccharine little girl voice she could muster. “I...I lost my mommy...we were travelling here from Gloucester, but got separated…” she whimpered. She wasn’t sure why Gloucester popped into her head, but she felt that using Ordelia would have been a bad idea.

“Aw, geez,” the second, clearly dumber guard said, kneeling down to meet her at eye level. “Buddy, we gotta help her.”

Lysithea fixed her gaze on the other, more skeptical guard, and cranked her big watery eyes and pouty lip up to 11.

Like a blast of miasma melting through the resistances of an unsuspecting opponent, the guard’s wariness gave way under the unwavering cuteness.

“Ah...alright. I’ll take you inside. You, stay here, keep an eye out for any other funny business.” The two guards exchanged nods, then one of them waved for Lysithea to follow him as he passed through the gate and into the bustling city of Hrym.

“You picked a bad time to get lost, kiddo,” the guard explained. “The new Empress, Edelgard, has been on the warpath all week. If you’re coming from Alliance territory, you’re lucky you and your mum didn’t get caught up in any skirmishes. But, you’re safe now that you’re here. Some of the Empress’s closest confidants are here in the city, as well as a large military force. Yes, no one will be invading Hrym for a while, that’s for sure. So we’ll just find you somewhere to get comfortable, and we’ll let the other gate guards know to keep an eye out for your mom. You’ll be reunited in no time. How does that sound?”

He looked around. Lysithea was nowhere to be seen.

“Uh...oops?”

Several streets over, Lysithea was straightening her outfit as she hurriedly bobbed and weaved through a busy street of people. She pulled a hair pin out of her pocket, which Hilda had lent her, and tied her hair up behind her head in an attempt to disguise her appearance a bit more.

So, phase one was successful. She was in Hrym. And none of her classmates would ever have to know she embraced her childlike appearance if only for a moment. Now for phase two. But how was she going to go about finding any of her missing friends? Would they be imprisoned? At a work camp? What about…

...Walking down the street towards her.

“Lysithea?”

She froze. It was Ferdinand Von Aegir.

She had wondered, over the past week, what his role in this coup would be. He had left the Black Eagle house to join the Golden Deer, and become rather good friends with some of her classmates. But he was still the son of an important Imperial nobleman - Prime Minister, was it? Goddess, he talked about it enough, she really should be able to remember it…

What if his loyalty was to Edelgard?

“Lysithea!” he called again, suddenly rushing towards her. Instinct kicked in. She turned and fled.

Several civilians called out in shock and anger as she whirled past them as fast as she could. She wanted to trust Ferdinand, but it just wasn’t safe to leap right to that conclusion. Better to hide, gather information discreetly, and determine if Ferdinand was safe to approach.

She risked a glance over her shoulder, and saw that he was rapidly closing ground between them. Of course, the older boy had longer legs and better stamina. Shit.

She quickly ducked into a nearby alleyway.

Ferdinand saw this, and came to a halt in the entrance to the same alleyway. He paused for a moment to catch his breath, then called out, “Lysithea! It’s okay! You don’t have to hide from me!”

Silence.

He took a few steps forward. Some discarded trash along the side of the alley rustled slightly, and he moved over towards it.

“Lysithea, I--” he began to say, before he was lifted off of his feet and slammed into the side of the wall. He collapsed into a heap on the ground, slowly pushing himself up. “I...ow...why…”

Lysithea stepped forward, standing over him with her arm stretched forward. “No sudden movements,” she said. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I will send you straight through that wall if you give me a reason to.

Ferdinand slowly pushed himself up into a kneeling position, hands extended over his head. “Of course, I understand. You think I’m with Edelgard. I’m not, though! I mean...well…”

“Well!?” Lysithea hissed. “Are you or aren’t you?”

“She thinks I am!” Ferdinand shot back. “But I don’t want to be! I had no idea about this...this plot of hers, this war, all this death! I wanted nothing to do with it! She called me back here to Hrym, wants to groom me to take over for my father. But I just...Marianne, no!”

“What?” Lysithea asked. “What about Marianne--”

“Don’t hurt him! Leave him alone!”

Suddenly Lysithea was being...well, attacked seemed like the only word for it, though it was more like being viciously mauled by an angry pillow. Lysithea flailed with the unseen force grappling her from behind.

“Uhm,” Ferdinand said, watching this display.

Marianne and Lysithea whirled around each other, each completely failing to grasp even the most basic tenets of hand-to-hand combat. Marianne was just sort of squeezing Lysithea around the stomach, while Lysithea attempted to flail her arms up to smack Marianne in the face.

“Let go!”

“Don’t--”

“Stop!”

“Ahhh!”

Ferdinand sighed, stepped forward, placed a hand on a shoulder of either girl, and gently pulled them apart.

“Marianne!?” Lysithea blurted out. “Why are you attacking me!”

“Lysithea!” Marianne gasped back. “I...I didn’t recognize you, I’m sorry! I just saw Ferdinand go running off, and I...I thought...well, I don’t know, I just got worried for him.”

“It’s fine,” Lysithea responded, huffing a bit. “Are you okay? Did I hurt you?”

“No, not at all,” Marianne said, smiling nervously.

“Good. You didn’t hurt me either,” she added. It was a dumb thing to say, but pride was like that sometimes.

“Oh. Good.”

“Anyway…” Lysithea turned back to Ferdinand. “I can trust you, right, Marianne? Ferdinand isn’t working with Edelgard on this insane plot of world domination?”

“No!” Marianne shook her head furiously, while Ferdinand awkwardly sidled up beside her. “He, uhm...well, so...ah…”

“Marianne, Leonie, and Raphael were captured during the battle at Garreg Mach,” Ferdinand explained, clearly realizing that Marianne’s nerves would make this story take ages. When Edelgard summoned us Adrestian students to her camp after the monastery had fallen, she asked me what to do with them, as I presumably knew them better than she did. She wanted to know whether they would be useful, or whether they should be...er…” Here even Ferdinand’s nerves seemed about to give out, but he plowed onward. “Killed.”

Lysithea levelled a dark glare at him. “What did you tell her?”

“That they would be useful, obviously!” Ferdinand blurted out. “Of course I didn’t suggest she kill any of them, are you insane?”

“He’s the reason we’re all here,” Marianne explained. “His father is important here, which means he’s important here.”

“There’s no love lost between Edelgard and my father,” Ferdinand added. “While Edelgard and I may not have the rosiest history ourselves, I believe she feels the sooner I can replace him, the better. But Lysithea, you have to believe me...I would never become some toady for a warmonger like that. Professor Byleth taught me better!”

There it was again. Professor Byleth, his name ringing through the air like some clarifying beacon. Lysithea had never felt more alive, more useful, than when she had been training with him. Claude used his name to rally everyone, even Seteth, to join him on this mad scheme. And now even Ferdinand was implying he would turn against his own homeland, all out of some loyalty to Professor Byleth and his Golden Deer.

And Lysithea...believed him.

“Okay,” she said. “So where are Leonie and Raphael?”

“Work camps,” Ferdinand explained. “I’m sorry, it was the best I could do. Marianne here is my...ugh...maid,” he went on, though this seemed to bother him more than it did her. “Because she is always under my close supervision, she requires no further security. Leonie and Raphael, though...it would not have been convincing to tell Edelgard they were of no threat to anyone here.”

Lysithea recalled a duel she once watched between Leonie and Raphael. A draw had been hastily called after a stone column in the training yard had been cracked.

“Fair enough,” she said with a nod. “But I intend to break them out.”

“I’ll do what I can to help,” Ferdinand said. “But it may not be much. I’m sorry. I can’t let on that I am helping fugitives until my grasp on power here is more solidified. When the time comes, we’ll take Edelgard down for what she has done. You have my word.”

He extended a hand. Lysithea took it, and they shook once.

Marianne stepped forward as well, and Lysithea nearly threw her hands up to find off another attack, but soon found that she was merely being hugged. She gave a few awkward pats on the back to Marianne before they separated.

“Hey, Ferdinand,” Lysithea asked once the incredibly uncomfortable hug was over, “you said that when all the Adrestian students were summoned to Edelgard, she asked you for advice on what to do with the captured Golden Deer. But what about Bernadetta? She was in our class too, even if she never got particularly close to any of us…”

“She wasn’t there,” Ferdinand answered with a shrug. “In truth, I have not seen her since the fighting broke out. I assume that she simply ran, and is a thousand miles away by now.” He sighed. “I’m sorry, but we have to get back before anyone finds our absence suspicious. Come on, Marianne.”

“Stay safe!” Marianne whispered to Lysithea. “I’m so thankful that the Goddess brought our paths together like this. What luck that we just happened to be going through the market district so that Ferdinand could get some ointment--”

“Marianne.”

“Some hemorrhoid ointment--”

“Marianne!”

“For his hemorrhoids. Coming, Ferdinand!”

Ferdinand ran a palm down his face, and left without looking back. Just as well, because then he didn’t have to see Lysithea badly failing at trying not to laugh.

When they were gone and she had regained her composure, she realized that things were about to get a bit trickier for her. She was going to have to break out not one, but two classmates from under the watch of armed Imperial guards. But hey, what was the worst that could happen? She could die?

At that, she nearly laughed even harder.


	5. Bliss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hilda and Ignatz create a scene. Lysithea and Lorenz have a moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hilda is a feminist icon, change my view

It wasn’t too hard to find the camp Claude was setting up. The trail wasn’t painfully obvious, but it was clear if you knew what you were looking for, which thankfully Lysithea did. She was obviously no rugged huntsman but she had gleaned some survival skills at Garreg Mach.

The trail wound its way into the woods, a good distance away from the beaten path. As the sun was starting to set, she began to worry she had lost it, but it became clear she had reached her destination when she came upon a watch post occupied by a gently snoozing Hilda.

Lysithea kicked her as she walked by.

“Ah! Invasion! We’re under attack!” Hilda gasped, jolting upright, before blinking wearily at Lysithea. “Oh, hey, Lysithea! I’m on first watch.”

“You sure are,” Lysithea responded with a roll of her eyes, continuing on past her into the main camp.

It was a nice little grove naturally shrouded by a ring of trees and underbrush that could easily be cultivated for some light cover in the event of an attack. The three carts were set up in a half circle, making up the back ‘wall’ of the camp. The middle one was turned sideways and had one side opened up, while the other was boarded closed. Inside, Lysithea could see Claude reclining behind a makeshift desk composed of empty boxes.

He stood up and excitedly leapt over his desk when he saw her approaching. “Lysithea! Glad you found us. What’s the word back in Hrym?”

Lysithea told him what she had discovered - about Ferdinand being on their side, having Marianne with him, while Leonie and Raphael were trapped in work camps and would need to be liberated.

“When I was leaving, I found a section of wall to the northwest in a kind of run-down neighborhood. Doesn’t seem like it gets much attention from the gate guards, so I blasted a small hole in it and covered it back up. We can use that to sneak in and out of the city and back to here any time,” Lysithea explained. And that way I won’t have to pretend I’m a toddler every time, she added to herself.

“Very impressive!” Claude said, and she could tell he meant it. “That means we can up the numbers on our next scouting mission. Hey, everyone! C’mon, gather around!”

Nobody seemed to have strayed particularly far, as they had all assembled quickly, though some were out of breath, having clearly been working on setting things up and gathering wood.

“Tomorrow morning, Lysithea is going to take a group of you into Hrym and show you her easy route in and out of the city. With more of you in there, you should have an easier time tracking down information on Leonie and Raphael. Don’t try anything crazy or heroic, though! Once you have information, come back here, and we’ll figure out a plan,” Claude explained.

“I wish to accompany Lysithea!” Flayn volunteered, which made Lysithea’s heart fill with some amount of pride.

“Whoa, there. Slow your roll, Flayniac,” Claude said, before even Seteth had a chance to object. “Unfortunately, you and your bro over there are way too recognizable. Same goes for me, really. Anyone sees us, it’ll cause quite a stir.”

“He’s...right, as much as those two words in that order pain me to say,” Seteth said. “My work with the church has made me instantly recognizable, and we already know that agents working with Edelgard have hunted Flayn for her blood.”

“So, I propose Lysithea take Lorenz, Ignatz, and Hilda with her,” Claude said, pointing to each of the three in turn.

“I am happy to assist,” Lorenz said, “though I am unsure what use...certain individuals you just named will be…”

“Hey,” Hilda said, “that’s not a very nice thing to say about Ignatz.”

“I’m talking about you!” Lorenz snapped. “You are so irresponsible and lazy!”

“I don’t have to stand here and take this!” Hilda shot back.

“You’re sitting down! You literally dragged a chair over when Claude called for us!”

“I don’t have to sit here and take this!” Hilda responded, reclining her chair back into a lying position while her right arm remained in the air, middle finger extended.

“Very mature,” Lorenz sulked.

“Hilda, Lorenz is right,” Claude said. “That was very hilarious.”

“That is not what I--”

“But we’re going to need you to pull your weight here, okay? We’re not exactly overflowing with manpower, and you’ve got a certain knack for charisma. You can get information out of people that torturers would dream of, and you just do it by batting your eyelashes. Come on. Help us out?”

“Fiiiiine,” Hilda relented, and Lysithea had to hand it to Claude for handling that as well as he did.

“Uhm. I’m happy to go too,” Ignatz said, but nobody seemed to particularly care.

Claude, Flayn, and Seteth took shifts watching over the camp that night as the others rested up for the day to come. In the morning, they awoke to Seteth cooking part of a deer he had caught over the fire. Lysithea felt she actually had an appetite for once. She definitely felt better about heading into Hrym with friends by her side, even if her friends were…

She looked across the campfire at Hilda, who had managed to convince Seteth to feed her somehow; Ignatz, who was struggling to break the skin on a haunch of meat; and Lorenz, who was too busy making sure his personal travel tablecloth was perfectly symmetrical to have even started eating.

Her friends were...yeah. And yet, she was glad to have them.

After Claude, Flayn, and Seteth had wished them luck and seen them off, Lysithea was now leading Hilda, Ignatz and Lorenz back down towards Hrym.

Thankfully, the loose hole in the wall was still there, and no patrols or suspicious passerby seemed to have tampered with or noticed it. Lorenz and Ignatz cleared away the rubble she had used to hide it from plain sight, and then all four crawled through to the other side.

“Just try to act natural, like you belong here,” Lysithea advised the others. “There are Imperial patrols but it’s not like the city is on total lockdown. People are still free to go about their business.”

“Hello, sir! Beautiful day today, hahaha!” Ignatz yelled at a passing civilian. This caused the man to give the four of them an odd look, but thankfully he kept watching.

“Ignatz. Honey. Was that natural?” Hilda asked him.

“I...I don’t know. I suddenly can’t remember what I’m naturally like, now that I’m on the spot like this.”

“Alright,” Lysithea said with a sigh. “Maybe four teenagers wandering around unsupervised, yelling niceties about the weather at passerby, isn’t the greatest plan. How about we split up? Draw less attention, cover more ground.”

“Sure!” Hilda said. “I’ll take Ignatz and check out the local watering hole. That’s where all the proper heroes go to pick up leads, right?”

“Uh, sure,” Lysithea agreed with a shrug. “So, Lorenz and I will go...I don’t know, figure something out.”

“Ah!” Lorenz blurted out. When Lysithea turned to look at him, he started blushing. “I mean, I would be...honored to accompany you, my lady.”

“Okay, weirdo,” Lysithea said, rolling her eyes and turning back away from him.

The two pairs agreed to meet up back at the secret pathway out of the city in three hours time, and then they parted ways.

Lysithea couldn’t help but notice that Lorenz was walking very closely by her side. Yes, the young man liked to play at being some valiant knight and no doubt felt he was protecting a fair maiden, but it felt...unnecessary.

Unnecessary, but...not bad?

She shook her head. Stop being stupid, she chided herself.

So, where to go first? Last time, she had stumbled straight into Ferdinand while wondering that very thing. Maybe she’d get lucky twice?

Her eyes scanned the part of the city they were walking through. It was a good deal more run down than the market she had been in last time. A few adults were hustling through, as if they didn’t want to stay in this neighborhood any longer than they had to. Mostly it was occupied by kids - younger than herself, most of them gathered in groups and playing games. Judging by the coins scattered about, it looked like quite a few were gambling.

“Such a sad state of affairs,” Lorenz said. “Clearly, Hrym is lacking in true noble leadership. You would never see a place like this in Gloucester.”

“Uh huh,” Lysithea responded, only half listening. Something had caught her eye. One of the vagrant youths was rummaging through a dumpster, and when they lifted themself out of it, Lysithea saw a glimpse of messy purple hair.

“Berna--” she began to say, but as if sensing imminent danger, the dumpster diver was running off in the blink of an eye.

“Hey!” Lysithea called out, instinctively running after her. The irony did occur to her, that her role from yesterday of fleeing as Ferdinand assured her he meant no harm was now inverted. Still, if that was Bernadetta, it was possible she had information that would prove useful to them. “Bernadetta, stop!”

“Lysithea, what are you - augh!” came the frantic voice of Lorenz behind her. She was vaguely aware of a series of crashing noises and furious, yet very polite, cursing, but she did not slow down or look behind her.

But when she came out of the other end of the alleyway into a much denser crowd of people, there was no sign of the purple-haired individual she had been chasing.

“Damnit,” she muttered, before picking a direction at random and setting off on her own.

Meanwhile, a few blocks west of where Lysithea was searching for a trash covered shut-in and Lorenz was laying curled up in an alleyway, Hilda and Ignatz were waiting patiently in line.

“This place must be popular,” Ignatz said, looking around. “I’ve never seen a tavern with a line to get in before.”

“Makes sense, given that you’ve never been anywhere cool,” Hilda explained. “This just means there’s a bouncer out front to make sure no underage kids get in.”

“Uhh...isn’t that us?” Ignatz asked, suddenly sweating.

“Shhh.”

“But Hilda, we’re only--”

“Shh shh shh shh.”

The line was moving slowly but steadily, and soon they were indeed standing before a large, surly looking man.

“He’s going to catch us and turn us over to the guards who are going to figure out who we are and throw us in prison and torture us until we turn over Claude!” Ignatz hissed.

“Let me do the talking,” Hilda whispered back.

“Here for the dance contest?” the bouncer asked.

“Yes,” Hilda replied.

“Alright, go on in.”

They walked past him.

“What happened? Are we dead?” Ignatz asked as they entered the tavern.

“Nah, we’re in,” Hilda said. The inside of the tavern was crowded, predominantly with older, rowdy looking men. “A dance contest...ooh, I’d love to enter that...stupid Professor Byleth, choosing Lysithea for the White Heron Cup...I’d have had great assets for a dancer. And by assets I mean--”

“I know what you mean, you don’t have to say it…”

“My tits.”

“Okay.”

“Well, hey, this still works!” Hilda cheered, as she shoved her way to the bar. Ignatz was surprised at how aggressive she was managing to be without apparently trying or even noticing. “These men will get all drunk and talkative during the contest and then we can start asking around about the work camps and they’ll tell me whatever I want to know because I’m cute!”

“Uhm, Hilda,” Ignatz said, struggling to even keep up with her, “I don’t mean to question the viability of your plan, but, uhm…”

“What?”

“Don’t you think you maybe rely too much on...uh...objectifying yourself?”

Hilda finally reached the bar, and leaned back against it, arching her back and striking a naturally seductive, curvaceous pose. “Hm? Oh, Ignatz, don’t be silly. I’m not objectified, I’m empowered.”

“Oh.”

Several men were already clustering around them, as if pulled in by the sheer gravity of Hilda’s confidence and sexuality. A few people stepped on Ignatz’s feet or jabbed him with their elbows without apparently noticing he was even there.

“Ow...excuse me, uhm, ow--”

“Why, thank you, I’d love a drink,” Hilda was saying. It sounded like she was somehow getting farther away, as the crowd gradually pushed them apart, as unstoppable as the tides.

The lights began to dim. Ignatz looked around nervously, and saw that a greater concentration of lights were shining on a stage at the far end of the tavern.

“Ladies and gentlemen, but mostly gentlemen…” came the booming voice of an announcer, to a few sneering cackles from the audience. “Are you ready for a show!?”

A chorus of cheers rang out. Someone spilled cold beer down the back of Ignatz’s shirt and he nearly screamed.

“Then put your hands together for our feisty band of exotic dancers from across Fodlan!”

The cheers started to really pick up as a line of young women began to prance across the stage. Ignatz could see that they were wearing very revealing silk dresses, and instinctively went to avert his gaze, but…

“No…” he gasped. “Leonie!”

Leonie was in the middle of the line, and was being jostled forward by the dancers on either side of her. Watching her face, it was clear she did not want to be here. In fact, she looked about ready to disembowel somebody with her bare hands.

In fact...looking down the line, none of the dancers seemed entirely thrilled with their situation. “Oh, Goddess,” he muttered. “This is one of the work camps! I have to tell Hilda!”

Attempting to fight his way back to the bar was like swimming up a waterfall. The cheering, drunken men were packed so tightly together that a few times Ignatz was worried he was going to die in this tavern. Finally, after a fair amount of ducking under swinging arms, sliding into momentarily open spaces, and crawling between a few pairs of legs, he was back next to Hilda.

“Hilda!” he hissed. “Are you seeing this!?”

Hilda was clearly enthralled with some strapping older man promising to whisk her away and treat her like a princess. Ignatz angrily cleared his throat. When that didn’t work, he prodded Hilda in the back.

“Hey, what’s your problem?” Hilda snapped spinning around. “Oh, Ignatz, it’s just--”

“Yeah, what’s your problem, pal?” the man flirting with Hilda asked. He stopped slouching against the bar and stood up straight, looming well over Ignatz.

“Hilda!” Ignatz squeaked. “Look at the stage!”

“What? The dancers? What about…” she trailed off, clearly realizing what Ignatz had noticed earlier. “Oh shit.”

“This guy bothering you?” the flirt asked, still staring down Ignatz.

“What do we do?” Ignatz asked out of the corner of his mouth.

“Yes, he’s bothering me,” Hilda said. Ignatz felt his heart drop.

“What!?”

“I said, back off, creep!” Hilda shouted, loudly and melodramatically. She grabbed the front of Ignatz’s vest and shoved him backwards. Ignatz slammed into somebody, causing the man to stumble forward and drop his mug of beer.

“Hey! What the hell!?” that man shouted, spinning around.

While Ignatz cowered on the ground, below the line of sight, Hilda pointed accusingly at the man who had been flirting with her.

“Screw you, buddy!” the drunk yelled, striding forward and punching the flirt across the face.

And that was all it took.

Within seconds, the tavern had erupted in a massive brawl, the air filled with hurled insults, flying fists, and thrown mugs of booze. Hilda grabbed Ignatz and began rushing through the crowd towards the stage.

A few particularly dour looking thugs were wading into the fight now, attempting to restore order, but they were vastly outnumbered. Some of those men were apparently in charge of keeping the dancers in check, for as soon as they were occupied by the brawl, the girls began to look for an escape. A few dashed straight for the door.

“Hey! My merchandise! You idiots, somebody stop them!” cried a voice, but it was ignored.

“Ah...excuse me, pardon me, sorry…” Ignatz was muttering as he tried to navigate through the fight as gently as he could. Hilda, meanwhile, was shoulder checking and elbowing men aside left and right. Before they reached the stage, one of the guards stepped in front of her, but remained upright for all of one second before Hilda slugged him in the chin, knocking him to the ground.

“Anyone else want a piece of this!?” Hilda was shouting. “I will shove my fist so far down your throat you’ll be shitting punches for a week!”

“Now, that wasn’t very lady-like, was it, Hilda?” came a new voice. It was Leonie, who had spotted them in the crowd and rushed over. “Did you start this fight?”

“Sure did,” Hilda said with a wink. “We’re here to get you out!”

Leonie looked around. “We?”

Hilda bent down behind a turned-over table and pulled up Ignatz.

“Uhm, hi, Leonie,” he said. “You look very...empowered in that dancer’s outfit?”

“Excuse me!?” Leonie snapped. “This thing is disgusting! I hate that they forced me into it!”

“Yeah, Ignatz, wow,” Hilda chided. “Not cool to objectify Leonie like that.”

“But...but you said...earlier, you said--”

Hilda rolled her eyes. “Sexuality is empowering if the woman wants it to be, but if it’s forced on us by men or society, it’s objectifying. Goddess, don’t you know anything about feminism?”

Ignatz squirmed at the end of her grasp. “No! I literally have no idea what you’re talking about! Can we please escape now!?”

“He’s got a point,” Leonie said, cracking her knuckles. “Mind if I clear the way to the door? I’ve got a lot of pent up aggression from the past week…”

Hilda curtsied. “Please, be my guest.”

The sound of screams and curses emanating from the tavern echoed through Hrym, growing fainter the further away one got, until it could barely be heard at all in the alleys on the eastern side of Hrym where Lysithea was finally giving up her search for the purple-haired youth that may or may not have been Bernadetta.

Judging by the position of the sun, about an hour had passed. Feeling stupid and defeated, she began to head back towards their meet-up spot. Hopefully the others had better luck than she did. Perhaps Hilda and Ignatz were right to check out the tavern. And Lorenz--

“Oh, crap,” she said out loud. The vague memory of Lorenz yelling in pain and falling behind at the start of the chase came flooding back to her. She had abandoned her search partner, wounded and alone, for over an hour.

“Well, Lorenz isn’t...that weak,” she figured. “He should be fine.”

Still, she picked up the pace to make her way back, a sense of unease gnawing at her.

She took a more direct path back, so it was only about 20 minutes or so until she was in the impoverished neighborhood that the chase started in. She looked around for any of the kids from earlier, to ask if they saw a purple haired weirdo limping around.

“Oh, Goddess,” she sighed.

The group of vagrant kids was still in a circle gambling with a set of dice, and sitting amongst them was Lorenz.

“Woo!” he cheered, as a pair of dice apparently came up favorably for him. “Come on, hic! Hand it over! Right here, big money, hahahahoohoo!”

“...Lorenz?” Lysithea asked, hesitantly approaching. It had to be him, as nobody else in the multiverse would wear their hair like that, but his behavior and speech seemed...off.

“Lysithithithea!” he called back. “Come here, come sit with me! Sit on my lap! We’re playing a game, me and my friends here, my good friends.”

“Hey, babe,” one of the kids said. He held out a flask towards her and shook it, offering her a swig.

“Oh, no,” she sighed. “Lorenz…”

“Come on! I can feel it, feel my luck turning around! Any moment now. I had to bet the deed to Glow, Glows, Gloucester, but I’m gonna win it back, any second now.” Lorenz leaned forward into her, and she grabbed him by both arms and began to pull him up.

“Nope, sorry, we’re leaving,” she said. “We’re going back. Say goodbye to your friends.”

“Goodbye, my dearest friends in the world!” Lorenz cried out. “Goodbye to you, Stabby Sam! And to you, Knifey Neil! You were always my favorite.”

“Wow. Rude,” said the one who was, presumably, Stabby Sam.

“Come ON, Lorenz,” Lysithea snapped, pulling on him more forcefully. “Seriously, what were you thinking? Are you a complete idiot?”

“Well, excuuuuuse me, princess,” he slurred back at her. “I don’t know what I was supposed to, supposed to do with myself, given you abandoned me in, in, in one second.”

Lysithea fell silent at this. Thankfully, they were close to the hidden exit out of Hrym, and Lysithea helped Lorenz stumble through, before resuming half-carrying him on the other side.

“Okay,” she finally said. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“I just, I hate this,” Lorenz snapped. “All of this! What are we doing!? Skulking about like, like, skulking, little, uhh...skulkers!”

“Shh,” Lysithea responded, gently patting his arm. “I know. We talked about this, didn’t we? You said I gave you a good reason to stay? That you could keep Claude in line?”

“No,” Lorenz responded, shaking his head. “No...you gave me a good reason to stay, but that wasn’t it…”

Lysithea blinked a few times, confused. “Wait, then what was the reason?”

“Because...you stayed...but if you’re just going to, to abandon me, I don’t...I don’t see the point in...hic!”

They walked in silence a while longer, Lysithea leading the way back to the camp. As they approached, she could hear quite a commotion. Apparently Hilda and Ignatz were back, and Leonie was with them. Part of her mind registered a few snippets of conversation, about some kind of massive bar fight and girls in servitude being used as dancers, but it mostly went in one ear and out the other.

“Lysithea? Is everything alright?” Flayn asked, noticing her entering camp while supporting Lorenz.

“Yeah,” Lysithea responded curtly, as she brought Lorenz into the cart where the boys had been sleeping and laid him down on his sleeping bag.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “I’m an idiot. I am. It just...seemed like you were so eager to be rid of me. I thought at least you...at least you, if no one else, wanted me around.”

Lysithea found herself idly petting his stupid hair out of his face, her hand running through his thin purple locks.

“Get some sleep, Lorenz,” she said softly. “We do need you. Okay? I need you.”

Her last few words fell on deaf ears. Lorenz was snoring softly.

She bent down and kissed his forehead, then left him to his sleep.


End file.
